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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1917)
PAST EIGHT AUTOMOBILES PAGES ONE TO TWELVE 1HE Omaha Sunday .Bee PART EIGHT AUTOMOBILES PAGES ONE TO TWELVE VOL. XLVII NO. 16. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1917. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. AU OM O TP) ID) "Toy of Rich" Has Become V A Necessity to the Farmer No Class of People Buying Autos as Fast as the Aflricul , turists; Show on-Auto Row This Week. Auto Row In Omaha will be a busy section of the city for the next week, as all the dealers have made exten sive preparatior . to care for the visit ors who are sure to come to the Ak-Sar-Beri festivities and will take this opportunity to look over the offerings of the various dealers. ; The new decorative lighting sys tem of tht city has been extended to Twentyrfourth street and the special Ak-Sar-'Ben lights are up as far as Twentieth street, so that at night the row is just as light as day. Dealers have arranged to take advantage of this and to keep open house all week to enteitain the thousands of visitors. Dealers have decorated their stores with national colors as well as Ak-Sar-Ben colors and have installed special lights so that the entire row has a gala day appearance. No city in the entire United States has better lighted showrooms than has Omaha. Most 'of the stores are roomy and are not overcrowded with cars so that those desirjng to look over the numerous offerings have ample room to view the new models from all sides and day or night have the b,est f lights to illuminate all parts of the cars. - Center of Grain Belt. No section of the country has such at $500 or less, when other makers were holding conferences to maintain prices and limit the production of what they believed must always be a rather exclusive luxury. The passenger automobile is a fa cility for farmers; a part of the equip ment of the progressive agricultural plant. The saddle horse and the bug gy horse were farm equipment in the prc-motor period. The town norse was almost wholly a luxury, and one rarely maintained by others than the very well to do. The farmer's auto mobile has supplanted his horse not only for passenger service, often not mere pleasure riding, but also for the farm errands and light freight hauling which took up so much time when horses were the fastest means of traveling between the farm and the blacksmith shop, the railroad station, the postoffice, the creamery. Trucks for Parcel - Post. The postmaster general has issued a statement strongly supporting the Moon house bill authorizing experi ments by the Postoffice department in the operation of motor trucks in the vicinity of large cities. The operation of these motor truck routes would add 100 per cent to the value of the parcel post service. The purpose of the Moon bill is to co-ordinate with the parcel post sys tem the benefits of the millions of dollars already expended and fo be expended in the development of motor vehicles ,and the making of good roads. Already automobiles are paying more than $25,000,000 in license and regis tration fees. Nearly all of this in the country as a whole is spent upon road i A am inn fM c id fhA fAnntni tributary to , Omaha. This section js j improvement, but the value of country tfmtno- with WMitfi 9tiH MphrasVa 'owned automobiles as educators of teeming with wealth and Nebraska hay more cars per population than any other state of the entire United States. Iowa now has one automobile for about every ten people and Ne braska goes it one better with one tar for every eighth person, and the ratio is rapidly increasing. It is sure to increase faster when this state husks its bumper corn crop which is almost ripe in the Nebraska fields. The" demand for autos in the state has been something phenomenal as there has been no let up since snow left the ground this spring... No mat ter how early dealers along the row got down to their peaces of . business they , found someTprospective- buyers camped outside their doors waiting" for a chance to look over the offer ings. It has been one continual hustle all summer, the salesmen busy dem onstrating and the proprietors busy getting enough cars from the factory to. fill the orders. .., ,. - Demand for Trucks. Demand for trucks has also in creased by leaps and bounds. Not only is the demand for these from the merchants and jobbers and manu facturers 6f the large cities, but the country is demanding them, too. Farmers have learned that it is cheaper to buy gasoline for trucks than to feed heavy draft horses to haul their produce to the city. Use for trucks has increased won derfully during the last year. Dur ing that time the entire city street department has been motorized and now the street washers and flushers have. been placed on heavy trucks and trucks are used entirely for hauling material. The fire department has been motorized for some time. Pav ing contractors use trucks almost en tirely to haul the material to their jobs and the delivery systems of the large stores are entirelyv relying on Aucks and light delivery wagons. Haul Hogs in Auto. Quite a little amusement was cre ated on the South Side last week when a woman from Iowa appeared in her Studebaker touring car with two large hogs for the Omaha mar ket. Omaha has become the accessory distributing point for the entire west, dealers out in the state long since learning that they can buy parts and adjuncts of automobiles cheaper in Omaha as they save the express charges from Chicago and other east-, ern points.. All the large tire manufacturing concerns maintain branches here from which the entire western coun try is supplied. And so the dealers along automo bile row will keep open house this week and extend an invitation to all visitors to make a tour of the many new offerings which are presented. " The Farmer's Vehicle. Twenty years ago the cartoon in the comic weekly was never more felicitous than when it depicted Farm er Corntossel with a pair of mules towing a stranded automobile back to the repair shop. No automobile maker then drermed of the day when farmers formerly content with bad roads is far greater than $25,000,000 a year in its effect upon farming and the advance of farm land prices. It is of singular interest to note that the invention of the automobile, which pessimists declared would put mort gages upon homes and cause a great waste of ime in pleasure driving, has done more than any single invention to promote the progress of agriculture and increase the welfare of the coun try.' The pre-eminent luxury of the pe riod is adding countless millions to the basic wealth of the United States, asVw.elLas vcontfibotnrg 30" the hap piness of tburitry life freedom from the isolation formerly endured with V, Auto Exports Are Greater Than Before War Started Value of Parts Sent Abroad Is More Than When European Nations Started to . ' Fight. In the twelve months ended June 30, 1917, this country exported $27,284,932 of automobile parts, not including en gines and tires, or actually a greater export value in pari alone than the total value of passenger cars and trucks shipped abroad in the year be fore the war. Automobile exports for the year ended June 30, 1914, totaled $26,574,574. Automobile exports in the 1917 fis cal vear ended June 30 totaled $90, 958,543, composed of $42,337,315 worth of commercial vehicles and $48,620,928 of passenger cars. In the preceding year the total was larger (it was the record year), being $97,465,811; com posed of $56,805,548 of trucks and $40,660,263 of passenger cars. It will be noted from these figures that again the normal situation has been estab lished of larger exports of passenger cars than of trucks, a situation which was upset in the 1915 and 1916 years by the war demands for American trucks on an unprecedented scale. Continues to Increase. In the year before the war we ex ported 784 commercial vehicles valued at $1,181,611 and 28,306 passenger cars valued at $25,392,963. How this pre war volume of automobile exports compares with our exports since the war began is shown below: 1917 181(1 No. 'Value. No. Value. Commercial .. 18.977 1 41.337 11,261) 60.805 rassenger ... 61.834 48,620 66,234 40.660 ToUl 10,111 Parts (no en-tinea-tires) 90,161 TT,4tt 397,461 17,284 11,888 Grand total 1111,243 1120,003 Last three figures omitted. The months just following the out break of the war in August, 1914, were marked by a prostration of the export business in passenger cars and the beginning of an undreamed of demand for trucks. In the twelve months ended June 30, 1915, the ship ments abroad of passenger earl were actually over $4,000,000 less than in the previous year, whereas the exports of trucks-and other commercial vehi cles increased from just over $1,000, 000 to jus: under $40,000,000. In the 1916 vear about 25 oer cent of the truck output of this country was ex ported and in the 1917 year only'about 15 per cent. Great Demand for Trucks. The 1916 year marked the peak of the demand by the European belliger ents for our trucks. The United King dom in 1916 took $26,000,000 of lour motor vehicles and in 1917 only $18, 500,000. France took $19,000,000 in 1916 and $14,600,000 in 1917, Russia $15,600,000 and $6,300,000, respective ly. This decreased demand from Eng land, France and Russia explains the smaller exports of commercial cars. While the demand for our motor cars from the warring nations of Eu rope is smaller than a year ago, it is most encouraging to automobile manufacturers to find that the demand from other countries of the world for American automobiles is steadily ex panding. Thus, Canada, the West Indies and Bermuda, the British East Indies, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Denmark in the 1917 year took in the aggregate $27,091,736 of American motor cars, compared with $16,082,165 in the preceding twelve months. In the following table is presented a detailed comparison of the exports of automobiles to various countries in the last two years: . hit. ti e. United Kingdom $18,608,441 I3S.14T.SS3 France , 14,691,460 19.137,904 Canada 12,038,787 T.C80.161 Russia In Europe.... .371,082 16,686.874 Australia 4,213,174 4,442.140 West Indies and Bermuda , 4.071,647 1,823.112 British East Indies., 3,117,361 1.307,738 Argentina 1,482,260 1.088,803 Chile 1,83,638 174.777 Mexico. 1,833.(75 409.700 Denmark 1,014.182 06,364 A significant point in the above table is the large taking of American automobiles by Canada. Some of this total may be for .re-export, but it is a fact that several of the leading Ameri can companies are . finding a very ready market for their product north i ,u. r j. i. t tt.. - took more of our motor output than any other country. , more or less fortitude by farmers and dreaded by urbanites whobut for-tKat by tne compensations of living upon and from the soiL Ten Billion Dollars is ' Price U. S. Pays for Autos More Thar. Four Million Motor Cars Registered During the First Six Months of Cur - rent Year. By EUGENE M. TRAVIS, New York State Comptroller. More than 4,000100 motor cars of all descriptions were registered in the United States during the first six months of the current year. Of this number 88 per cent were passenger cars and the remaining 12 per cent commercial, and nearly all were built in this country. A recent United States Commerce and industry report shows that the number of foreign cars imported into this country dur ing the last six years has been negligi bleless than 20,000 while over 43, 000 cars valued at $18,000,000 have been exported since January last. . As a matter of statistics, 94 per cent of the cars used in this country are of American make and it can safely be computed that they aggregate a present value of nearly $5,000,000,000. The statistics further show that about $600,000,000 was spent upon the pur chase of about 800,000 new cars by American motorists last year and to this sum are yet to be added the values of the accessories, the supply of which forms a very substantial, branch of the motor car trade. Not an Expense. But the annual expenditure for new machines, large as it is. is not all , the expense, as the cast of running is neavy, witnessed by an industry which motoring has built up, namely, tire manufacturing, which is becom ing almost as large as the motor car building trade itself. Next to the tires is the cost of gasoline and lu bricating oils, which is' among the heaviest in the motorists' expendi tures. Besides, the cost of repairs, renovations and periodical overhauls amounts to many millions, which, added to this, is the sum of the an nual registration and license fees, ,i .....u i . i reacninz aa.uuu.uuu so tar this vrar . mcic wuuiu uc mure auiuniouiics in ' ' .. f a western agricultural state, in pro portion to population, tnan in any jther state in the union Nebraska stands first among the states in motor car ownership.. There is an automobile . for. every eight per sons in Nebraska, as against a car for every ,fifty persons in New York, for svery thirty-seven persons in Penn sylvania, for every twenty persons in Ohio. In Arizona, still to a consider ible extent a ranching country, there ire more than twice as many automo biles in proportion as there are in iome of the manufacturing states of he east. No Longer Luxury. The "toy of the rich" has become i farmer's vehicle to an extent, not :oreseen ten years ago, or even five fears ago, by the progressive manu facturer, who saw what he believed to be a business opportunity in the manufartnre nf motor vehicles to sell take into account the moneys spent indirectly in connection with motor ing,, such' -as the . cost of suitable clothing, hotel and traveling expenses while touring, which must add sev eral millions to the total amount. Many Are Benefited. The spending this money benefits directly or indirectly a great number of people, especially the industrial classes. The average of direct labor upon the car is small, but this does not by any means cover the entire cost to the manufacturer. There are, in addition to the items of rent and taxes, the heating, lighting and power, the, wages of unskilled and skilled labot throughout the works, the sal aries of the managers and the staff of supervisors; the highly skilled draftsmen, testing staffs and the cleri cal assistants who deal with the sup plies and keep track of the work. Moreover, the manufacturers' pur chases are high in the way of ma terial which is not raw. but the fin ished and partly finished product of other trades. When a machine is fin ished, still more labor is required for its distribution and sale. Labor Half the Cost. . From first to last over half the cost of a motor car represents labor, while the balance is not manufactur ers" profits, but such items as rent, fuel, light, heat, advertising, travel ing expenses, office expenses, agents' commissions, depreciation of the plant and machinery. Apart from the cost of cars, if other items are analyzed similarly affecting the expenditure oV upkeep, it will be found that each and all pay their quota or share to la bor At least half of the cost of repair and renewals goes to labor, while even such items as garage ex penses, registration and license fees and insurance also mean employment of laborers and helpers, collectors and clerical staff. Taking all the expenditures of own ers of motor cars, the benefits to the industrial classes must exceed in the aggregate a billion dollars an nually. If the average of the wages and salaries of all engaged in the -r...ff will amount to a sum exceeding $35.- 000,000. Statistics reported bv the United States bureau of roads indicate motor trade and other connected in that approximately $80,000,000 wasjdustries be taken into consideration expended for highway improvement i as a thousand per annum, it means last year by the several states and , that upwards or Z,000,00U persons ob largely for the benefit of the motor ists. Garage service aggregates a large tain their employment by that indus try and that somethine like 5.000.- 000 of the population are directly'or sum, although perhaps the heaviest indirectly supported bv the manufac expense of all is in driving and care ture of motor cars. Then there re of the cars, which has opened a new mains a very important item of de calling of vast extent. The actual preciation which, although not one of number of professional drivers li- direct-out-of-the-pocket expenditures censed in this country during 1911, is one, nevertheless, representing a reached nearly 175,000 and since that .loss of capital and should therefore time" their number has increased two fold. If the wages of -this number were fixed at the rate of $15 per, week and the compensation ofothers em ployed about the car were added the total would reach upwards of $5,000, 000 annually. But these figures cover only the direct expenditures, upon cars and their operation and do not be included. Jf this were done, it would add another vast sum to the total, so that, if these itms are considered it is certain that at the present rate of increase the gross ex penditure upon all branches of mo toring will before the present year is out reach the enormous sum of over $10,000,000,000. aJIfaiiWMaM tohhts catch A or treezeups and the damage they do, mntbotihet o u dnve tamum FRANKLIN MOTOR CAR CO. 2205 Farnam Street. Phone Douglas 1712. R-U-2B-l-of-60